Did you hear about the married Cleveland politician who was caught in a parking lot with a woman other than his wife at 4:30 in the morning? Who wasn’t licensed to drive alone at the time, and hadn’t been for years because he never bothered to get a permanent license?

Well, that was Ed FitzGerald, the poor sap Democrats decided to throw in front of Kasich’s fundraising buzzsaw.

After the parking lot story broke last week, FitzGerald made his case to reporters and then sent a series of fundraising emails decrying Kasich’s “shameless personal attack at me and my family,” because what else could he do?

FitzGerald maintains that there was nothing fishy about parking with a woman in the middle of the night to figure out how to get to her hotel, remaining parked long enough for a contractor working nearby to call the police, and still being there 10 minutes later when police arrived.

Silver lining for FitzGerald: at least coverage of the October 2012 incident will goose his name recognition. A Quinnipiac poll released July 30 found that 65% of Ohioans didn’t know enough about FitzGerald to register a favorable or unfavorable opinion of him.

Given Kasich’s fundraising prowess and improvements in Ohio’s economy after the disaster that was Democrat Ted Strickland’s single-term tenure, FitzGerald’s chances were slim from the start.

Then FitzGerald chose a running mate… poorly. FitzGerald dropped state senator Eric Kearney from the ticket after a press firestorm resulting from Kearney’s upwards of $1 million in personal and business tax liens.

Ever since, Fitz has been on thin ice with Ohio’s media. Speculation is now turning away from whether Fitz has a shot to whether any Democrat on the statewide ticket can escape immolation under the Fitzenburg’s wreckage.

“FitzGerald will do better than the 24.9 percent of the vote Democrat Rob Burch received against incumbent Gov. George Voinovich in 1994,” lefty Plain Dealer columnist Brent Larkin wrote yesterday. “But he might do worse than Democrat Tim Hagan’s 38.3 percent against incumbent Gov. Bob Taft in 2002.”

* The woman involved in the FitzGerald incident is still alive and well